Sales Blog with Sales Tips

When I was a freshman sales representative, the VP of Sales told me if I kept 95% of my customers happy, I’d be doing a great job.

That might have been good advice even a few years ago.

It represents 100% bad coaching today. Here’s why.

You’re On Stage And Everyone Is Watching
Things have changed dramatically in the last five years. I’m not sure we fully appreciate how exposed all of our actions have become and the resultant level of customer service that is expected of us.

Because of social media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), if the company we work for makes a false step, or we do, the whole world knows about it. Instantly.

Decision makers use social media when purchasing, especially when it comes to capital expenditures. Blunders can have more than a trivial impact on our sales. Have you ever considered that potential customers are googling your name before buying from you? They are.

The old formula that said, “If you provide poor service to one customer they’ll tell 10 people,” is from the Paleolithic era. That number is now unlimited.

When You’re On Stage, There Is No Room For Mistakes
Why do you think film producers and directors are so obsessive about their work? They know that millions of viewers will be watching. With so many eyes focused on their work, shortcomings are quickly reported and exaggerated.

Because of social media, things are no different for us.

Sales Tips Wrap Up
In 2010, customers expect perfection from our employers and us. When I say perfection, I mean just that. No errors. There are too many eyes watching and reporting.

Ensure that you follow what is being said about you and your employer on social media. You can lessen any negative mentions by quickly responding before an ember becomes an inferno.

But don’t despair. All of your competitors are working under the same set of rules. The game can also work in reverse. If you do something great, the whole world can know about that too.

Further sales tips reading:
You Are Better Than Your Company’s Propaganda
The Voodoo Of Selling Added Value

>You can automatically receive Sales Tips Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Scott Sheaffer’s New Book, “Comatose Management”
—
Six Short Stories of Destructive Management Practices, Volume I
—
Available in printed and Kindle edition on amazon.com
—
—

Below is a list of 5 tools that will make you more effective in 2010.

I looked through my extensive list of sales tools and these are 5 of my favorites. The providers of these tools have not compensated me in any way (but if they want to buy me a new car or something, I wouldn’t mind).

5 Top Sales Productivity Tools
Xobni (xobni.com) lets you quickly find emails, attachments, appointments and contacts in Outlook. Additionally, it will simultaneously find matching information on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Hoovers (pretty cool). Price is a one time fee of $29.95 with a 30-day free trial version.

ConnectNote (connectnote.com) allows you to easily send videos and attachments to a customer or prospect. All you need is a webcam. It’s great for delivering proposals when a personal visit is not possible or economical. There are a million uses. It makes you stand out from the crowd in a big way. Cost is $25 per month per user.

Jigsaw (jigsaw.com) is a website that allows you to receive free information about companies you’re unfamiliar with when you reciprocate by providing information about other companies you are familiar with. You also have the option of buying leads for a reasonable fee. This service is different from conventional list providers because sales professionals – like you – are populating the information. Jigsaw provides 20 free points for subscribers of this sales blog. This link will credit your free points when you sign up.

Google Alerts (google.com/alerts) are email updates of the latest relevant Google search results based on your choice of topics. It’s a great way to stay on top of decision makers and companies. It’s free, and it’s easy to use.

Salesforce.com (salesforce.com) is a simple to use web based CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. Salesforce.com provides campaign management, follow-up, collateral management and knowledge sharing. If your company doesn’t have a CRM tool, then get one for yourself. You have too many prospects and active customers to try and juggle everything with file folders and Excel spreadsheets. Costs start at $25 per month per user with a free 30-day trial version.

Prepare For 2010
2010 looks to be a promising year for sales professionals. Make sure you’re taking advantage of the tools already provided to you by your employer and add the ones they don’t.

Further sales blog reading:
Digital Sales Proposals
Jigsaw CEO Tells Me Why You Need His Website
Direct Sales Tips: A free tool that every salesperson needs on their computer.
A Powerful Sales Tool You’ll Use Every Day – And It’s Free

>You can automatically receive Sales Tips Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Scott Sheaffer’s New Book, “Comatose Management”
—
Six Short Stories of Destructive Management Practices, Volume I
—
Available in printed and Kindle edition on amazon.com
—
—

Social media (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook) can be used as a selling tool and it’s not nearly as difficult as you may think. It’s a 5-step process and you’ve probably already completed some of them. The fifth step is where it all comes together.

The Basics
Social media is a great way to build rapport with prospects and customers. It can also be a way to gather and give information. Isn’t relationship building and information gathering/giving the holy grail of what we do? Social media can be a powerful tool to help us.  Please see my May, 2009 article in Training Magazine to learn more about the essentials of social media.

Step 1
Sign up for a Twitter account. If you haven’t already done this, please don’t tell anyone and just do it.

What’s cool about Twitter for sales professionals is that the public can only see your tweets and replies (i.e. updates you make and your responses to others). Others can’t see the direct messages (i.e. personal messages) you are getting or sending, nor can they see replies to your tweets. This is important because it lets you control what your customers are seeing.

You’ll use Twitter to provide and receive tidbits of information that fit in the “short, fast and frequent” category. Twitter is weak in the biographical area. I’ll discuss what kinds of things you can include in all of your sales social media efforts at the end of this post.

Step 2
Set up a LinkedIn account – surely you’ve done this already. LinkedIn’s real intention is for professional networking and collaboration.

Don’t worry so much about status updates here. LinkedIn allows you to post status updates and send and receive direct messages, but that’s not its strength. Think of it this way: Twitter is a microwave oven when it comes to instant communications whereas LinkedIn is a conventional oven.

What’s important about LinkedIn is that it provides the best place for you to brag about yourself and your qualifications. It also allows you to easily create a substantive professional network in your industry.

Step 3
The final social media site you need to set up is Facebook. I can almost forgive you if you haven’t done this already because Facebook used to be somewhat of a kid thing – not anymore.

A convenient way to define Facebook is to place it right between Twitter and LinkedIn. It allows for status updates and direct messaging while simultaneously providing a place to put all kinds of biographical information about yourself.

Direct messages are completely private on Facebook but responses to your status updates can be seen by others. Paying attention to this fact and correctly setting Facebook’s privacy settings will keep you in control of the content on your Facebook page.

Step 4
What kinds of things should I include on these 3 sites that would give me credibility in my industry and with my customers?

Biographical

• Your tenure with your company
• Years you’ve been in your industry
• What industry groups or associations you belong to
• Awards and achievements you’ve earned
• Your education and training
• Reference customers (be careful to check with these companies first and know that your competitors will call on them)

Status Updates (usually done with a short comment and an informational link)

• Industry trends and announcements
• New technologies
• “How To” information
• Articles and white papers from “thought leaders” in your industry

Step 5
When you’ve completed the above, put your unique Twitter (e.g. http://twitter.com/scottsheaffer), LinkedIn and Facebook URL’s on your business card. This makes you transparent, available and current. Your competitors aren’t doing this – yet.

Gotchas To Be Aware Of

• Remember that everything you put on these sites will be viewed by your customers. You want to look as professional as possible while remaining approachable.
• Don’t spend too much time on these sites each day (15-30 minutes maximum) and do so during non-selling hours.
• Social media represent virtual networks. Be sure to reach outside of these networks and make person-to-person contact. This can be where virtual translates to financial.
• Social media can’t be a one-way street. You have to play with the kids in the neighborhood. In other words, don’t just make status updates, respond to updates you are receiving.
• Check with your employer to ensure this complies with your corporate communication guidelines.

Further reading:

• Use Social Media To Improve Your Prospecting Right Now
• Customers in 2008 vs. Customers in 1993. Are they really different?

>You can automatically receive Sales Tips Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2009 Scott R. Sheaffer

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Something very interesting is occurring in web-based online research. This phenomenon directly affects sales because we all know it is important to research prospective customers – and decision makers – prior to contacting them. The web is one of our primary tools for gathering that information.

Some Preliminary Data
Facebook’s user base is over 250,000,000 and the 35+ age group (i.e. potential buyers, decision makers and purchasing managers) is one of its fastest growing demographics. That’s huge. Twitter doesn’t publish its user base numbers, but it is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions (probably more users than Facebook at this time). LinkedIn claims over 40 million users. The growth rates of all three are staggering. With each new user, we’re beginning to see a shift.

An Unexpected Change
Historically, most sales professionals have turned to Google to begin the process of ferreting out information about prospects and decision makers. But, there is something missing in Google’s search results that is critical when gathering sales information. Relationship data. There’s nothing personal about the results returned from a search engine like Google.

As a result, Google is beginning to lose ground to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter when it comes to individuals researching companies and people. As Mr. Spock used to say, “fascinating.” Why is this? Social media tools have the ability to add personal data to the results; Google provides nothing more than facts and figures. This added dimension is something everyone can appreciate, but it’s especially important to sales professionals.

Sales Tips For Searching Beyond Google
The next time you’re preparing to contact a prospect for the first time, take advantage of social media and add a new, and extremely important, dimension to your information gathering: personal data. The additional information you’ll glean from these sites is likely to be the most important you’ll add to your knowledge basket before making that first contact.

Further reading:

• Early reviews of my new book, Comatose Management
• Facebook Statistics

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©2009 Scott R. Sheaffer

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Are you satisfied with your sales results?
Kay Ray can show you and your team how to reach
your objectives and unlock the door to success.
thekayray.com